Stamping Away Notebooks

One of the things on my to-do list before I left for my retreat was make a little giftie for all the people attending… I had only met two of the ladies before, so I definitely wanted to show them a little love, and as a list maker… I knew that these kinds of events inspire a lot of lists of things you want to remember, make, see, do or buy. So I created a little journal for all of my new friends.

I am in love with these little SenseBooks that Imagination International started carrying last year. This is the 4″ x 6″ pocket size, and the pages are available ruled, grid or blank. I really like that they have a table of contents and that the pages are numbered (the 4×6 version has 135 pages). You can write or sketch your own little chapters, and they are cheap enough that I can have multiples going at the same time.

You can purchase the notebooks with or without covers, and I wanted something simple and unique, so I created my own covers with a thin, kraft paper. I used a roll of kraft wrapping paper, and ripped each sheet to size using a straight edge – I liked the raw, ripped look. I keep a roll of this on-hand because it’s great for quick gift wrapping, table covering for parties or events and random projects.  You could also use sheets of brown paper bag paper. I don’t recommend traditional cardstock weight for this because you want the jacket to wrap easily around the notebook and lay fairly flat.

For my little gift notebooks, I thought a cute cover would be fun, so I created a jacket template in Photoshop. I used the height of the notebook and allowed width to span the front, back and spin with almost 2″ on each side for an inside flap. On the above picture, I show a pink mock-up of the space where the front cover will end up resting on my jacket so I know where to position my text. I just deleted the pink layers before printing.

I printed my book jackets on the Epson SureColor P600 – which I like because it handles many different media types, thicknesses and paper sizes – it will print directly from rolled paper or canvas. So fun!

I created the Kansas state outline by tracing a free google image in Photoshop. Next, I layered my text over the Kansas image. The text on the cover reads:

My little book of big, big ideas from Stamping Away Kansas. Stamps I need, tools to make my life easier, recipes I want to try, books I want to read, things I want to do. Important stuff to remember. lists of all the pretty, hip, tasty, cool and awesome things.

You can see other photos from the weekend here, and I think everyone came home with lists of fun things, a lot of finished cards and projects and memories too numerous for this little book of big ideas.

Thanks for stopping by!